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Americans Can’t Trust Rex Tillerson to Lead the State Department

Call your senators today and tell them to vote against Rex Tillerson for secretary of state. Learn how below.

The role of America’s top diplomat is not a light one. In many ways, the weight of the world rests on the US secretary of state’s shoulders.

Which is why so many are so concerned about the outside influences that may have their thumbs on the scale with the man nominated to fill the role next: former ExxonMobil Chairman and CEO Rex Tillerson.

Oil Company Policy Can’t Be US Foreign Policy

It’s not just Tillerson’s role in funding denial that makes him unfit to be secretary of state. It’s also his history of partnering with less-than-enlightened governments to grow Exxon’s business and the possibility that US foreign policy could become just another tool for oil companies and open our country to distinctly unsavory influences.

Complicating matters further, according to Vanity Fair, in 2011, Tillerson signed a $300 billion deal between Exxon and the Russia’s state-controlled oil giant Rosneft; however, the deal was “effectively stalled” following the US sanctions against Russia in response to the country’s invasion and annexation of Crimea in 2014.

Though he’s formally committed to severing ties with Exxon Mobil to comply with federal ethics rules ahead of his Senate confirmation hearing, the massive deal he will receive as he parts ways with the company concerns some law experts because “ExxonMobil has agreed to provide him with benefits it had no legal obligation to provide.” It’s difficult to imagine Tillerson not feeling an understandably strong sense of loyalty to the corporation where he spent the entirety of his professional life and which paid him so richly upon his departure to move into government.The Exxon-Rosneft deal can only go forward if the US lifts sanctions against Russia, creating a major conflict of interest for America’s top negotiator of international relations, one that calls into question his very appropriateness for the role of US secretary of state.

After all, the State Department is charged with creating “a more secure, democratic, and prosperous world for the benefit of the American people and the international community,” not advancing the business interests of fossil fuel corporations.

Make sure our senators do their job and only confirm nominees we can trust to protect the health of our families and the future of our planet.

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